Posts Filtered by Tag: restaurant toys

Need a holiday traveling project for the kids? Here is a travel size Paper City Nativity Scene! The tiny pieces turned out rather cute, and it’s also quite convenient being able to print everything on one sheet of paper. Especially great for large groups of kids. And after they’re done building it, you can stow the whole scene inside a mint …

Our youngest daughter LOVES anything that involves cooking, and she’s also enchanted by tiny objects. So I decided to paint the top of an old mint tin to resemble a stove, then I created some cooking objects that could be stowed away inside for a miniature kitchen set. So far, it’s been a huge amount of fun for her. And the twins are swooping …

We’ve been enjoying a lot of indoor paper crafts lately, and a few days ago we made some little slotted animals based on a wooden set that I made awhile back. Cutting the animal shapes out and putting them together was just the right amount of challenge for the kids. They were quite focussed, and really enjoyed seeing them stand up when they finished. …

I had so much fun making the Travel Sized Paper City Paris, and couldn’t wait to make more mini toys for on the go. I was getting ready to miniaturize the Dressy Cats, but decided that I was in the mood to create something a little different. So here are the Modern Mini Cats! (I’ll still make travel sized Dressy Cats too.) For the Mini Cats, …

It seems like we’re always in the need of more kids activities for restaurants and travel. Shortly after I made Paper City Paris, I wondered what a miniature version would look like. Finally, this week I had the time to try it out. It was really fun redesigning and simplifying the folds and structures. For example, the people in this set are so …

Today I made a memory game using images from some of my paintings. My kids were watching over my shoulder as I was working with the images on my computer, and they kept saying, “there’s a match!” every few seconds. Once it was all printed and cut out, they had a great time playing it, and collecting their own matches. There’s …

The other day, while I had the paper clips out, I thought it would be fun to make a barrel of monkeys type game by bending them into hook shapes. Jack had a good time figuring out how to get them all linked together, and also how to get them apart.

While reading the December issue of Art Forum Magazine, I came across a brilliant Damián Ortega sculpture made of tortillas. Of course I immediately wished I could play with them. So I scanned some recent collage circles I’d made, printed them out, and made these building discs. It’s surprisingly tricky to build with them, but amazingly …

Today I made a little cowboy scene out of paper. Similar to the paper animals I made before. These are made from painted paper that I use for my collages, but any paper will do. I also used a black and silver pen to draw on them. I like toys like these because they flatten and you can take them on the go, to restaurants or the doctor’ …

The kids got some new construction paper for a Christmas gift last night, so we made finger puppets this morning. You can see on their faces the excitement and wonder they had for the tiny puppets. They had a great time acting out really funny scenes and stories. A super fast craft with fun results!

My nephew and niece had a joint birthday party last week. Pablo loves trucks and Milly loves our climbing gorilla when she comes over. She also loves princesses, so I made her a climbing princess. Good old fashion fun!

I’ve seen little books like this all around, but now that I have a sewing machine I finally got to make some. I made the covers from thick art magazine covers, and then used a paper cutter to cut the pages. Then just fold the papers in half, and sew a line down the middle. Simple and very satisfying! It’s going to really be fun when the kids get …

Yesterday my son and I had fun cutting out some scrap paper and turning them into little animals. It was really a fun way to use old paper. We kept making more and more animals until we had a full zoo. Here are a few of them.